How about reclassing “offense” and “defense” just into “dps” or “offense” because no one just uses offense heroes on attack and vice versa, it just makes more sense
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No thank you, DPS is a very vague term. Mei has self healing, freezing + mass freezing, can block ultimates/doors and become invincible. Doomfist has four different ways to punch people in the face.
DPS aren’t inter-changeable, which is why people tell S76 to kill Pharah and tell Junkrat to break shields.
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You could just make colored borders around the characters. Red, Yellow, Blue, Green.
I would prefer a system like what paladins has.
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i can see how that could be better…but then we just get into more arguements
The roles are intended to help new players who are just starting Overwatch.
Experienced players generally recognize that a Roadhog can be just as effective as a Reaper and is used to pick and separate a target from the group so they are easier to kill.
This can’t be communicated easily to a new player, so they give them basic tips on how to improve (offense focuses on mechanical skill, defense on area control and map awareness, tanks on positioning, and supports on target prioritization) and let the player figure out the best rest themselves.
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generally attack heroes stay by themself or next to the enemy team.
while defense heroes stay with/behind the team.
the only case it isnt like that is soldier, and arguably mccree (this one depends since he want to use his flashbang).
there are a lot of other differences too but i think this one is something pretty important.
it is also the reason why i don’t play any attack heroes other than soldier.
actually defense just means they’re good at “controlling areas” and that that’s they’re primary goal. on the other hand the primary objective of offense heroes is to “secure kills”. the line between these two classes just blur a lot because they both do/complete these tasks mostly through damaging.
for example:
junkrat can easily kill people with his numerable burst damage but his kit revolves around him being able to secure choke points via traps and spamming.
widow can also secure kills by headshotting, but once the enemy knows there’s a widow they’re more inclined to position themselves outside the snipers line of sight, hence widow is “controlling the area”
on the other hand
mccree for example can be a threat but his kit revolves around using his flashbang + ftm/headshots to secure kills tho his ult feels more like a controlling the area kind of ult
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How does giving new players false information help them? Widow = defense is false information. Widow is viable on both sides while being considerably better on offense. Sombra until her rework was considerably better on defense than offense.
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Nah. Any classification is going to be a bit iffy especially given they’re starting to implement kinda hybridy heroes like Moira and Brigitte.
I never said it was the best way to play a hero like that. It is simply the style that most players new to Overwatch are familiar with.
Can you name 1 AAA-titled fps game where a sniper weapon let the player fly into the air or rapidly move across the map? Most snipers are stationary and about area control. It is a favored weapon for spawn campers and twitch gamers. Very few snipers are given abilities or the tools to scout in the same way WM can.
Admittedly, this might change as other fps games develop WM-clones, but we are talking about introductory roles and not training.
The achievements in OW are instead used to actively train players to play around with how to use a hero, not the role title.
Maybe Put subclasses like
Offensive/Utility, Offensive/Support, Offensive/Builder, Offensive/Sniper
Offense- damage done, Kill the enemy effectively.
Bastion, Doomfist, Hanzo, Junkrat, Mccree, Pharah, Reaper
, Solder:76, Windowmaker.
Tank- Damage taken. Push/Save front line.
Rein, Orisa, Zarya, Roadhog.
Healer- Damage restore.
Ana, Lucio, Mercy, Moira
Assassin- Dive, Kill and harass the enemy effectively.
Tracer, Sombra, Winston, Genji.
Utility- Effectively affect the team.
Brig, D.va, Mei, Torb, Sym, Zen.
thought?
Remove categories and just put them in an alphabetical table the same as the hero gallery lol 
Are you trying to make this system work for new players or for all players?
The system is too simple for veteran players and makes no sense for new players looking to find a hero they like.
Also, why isn’t Support just called “healer” and why isn’t Genji an assassin? That’s a pretty common play style with him, and most new players would see a japanese cyber-ninja as an assassin archetype.
IMO, New players will choose offense and assassin, sounds like cool. They may not to try tank, support(?), Utility.
Yeah, Healer is more suit. Ninja as an assassin? cool.
How you think about Pharah?
Why do other games matter to Overwatch? It doesn’t matter what that hero’s kit is, or what other games usually do with components of that kit. If a hero is best used on offense but the game classifies them as a defense hero that is not doing any favors to anyone. It doesn’t help new players. It doesn’t help old players. It helps no one.
The role has nothing to do with how well you do on Attack or Defense phases. It’s not that defense heroes are better when defending a map, the phase just happens to have the same name as the role. If we called the roles, Offense, Tanks, Support, and Control, you wouldn’t think Control heroes should only be played on Defense, and Offense heroes should be played only on Attack.
Furthermore, if you take a look at all the offense heroes, they are essentially all melee or skirmish types. You poke from range, get in close for burst damage, and then get out, or some variation thereof. Even S76, the long-range offense hero, works well by poking you down with bullets, running to mid/close-range and bursting you down with a rocket. That synergy and play style just doesn’t work for any of the Defense heroes.
A new player who has learned that style will try that with WM, thinking her SMG does the same thing at close range as a Sombra/Tracer SMG, and be badly disappointed.
The idea is that if you are starting out and you find a hero you like, you can find a hero with a similar play style within the same role and you can slowly expand your hero pool. Jumping between roles is much harder than jumping to a different hero in the same role.
I’ll admit the Defense group has the weakest association, and it is no coincidence that everyone who argues about the classification system brings up Widowmaker. She is very different from other defense heroes (with the closest being Hanzo), but none of the Defense heroes segue with each other as well as the Offense, Tanks, or Supports do.
You’re right that the expectations from other games don’t matter once you start playing OW, but a big part of OW is expanding your hero pool. The categories help new players find comparable skill sets and play styles. There is room for improvement, and I think the Defense category especially needs a rework, but I wouldn’t recommend a Widowmaker to play Genji or even McCree unless they had some idea of how an offense player actually worked to poke and dive.
But the naming does imply that Offense heroes do better attacking and Defense heroes do better defending. Even the tooltips in the hero select screen will warn you there’s no Defense heroes when on defense. If it was called something else that expectation would not be built on new players. For me it’s not a problem, I understand perfectly fine that the name makes no difference. I understand that having Roadhog and Zarya as your only two tanks is bad even though 2 tanks is standard, and the game doesn’t warn you against that duo. But for a new player those names mean something, and will be used by them to build comps.
I can understand what you mean. But by looking at their abilities, most offense characters are built to do damage and attack. While defense characters are more so made for securing areas (thus the names). That doesn’t mean that offense characters can’t be used on defense and so on.